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Original poster

Care to share the oddest thing house guests have done in your home this festive period?

624 replies

CharlieWeasleysWife · 01/01/2026 15:32

We've had many guests over the festive period and most have been an absolute delight. However, have just waved off a few of DHs friends and they:

Removed phone chargers and toiletries left in the guest room/bathroom and taken home

Used (a used!) dish cloth to wipe their face then replaced on the sink

Complained we won't allow scary/violent TV until our young children are in bed

WTF?

Edited for typos

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
sueelleker · 04/01/2026 16:28

VoltaireMittyDream · 02/01/2026 15:57

Not house guests so much as visitors.

DB’s wife and kids have pretty extreme untreated OCD, which he has been conditioned to accept as normal.

When they come to ours they bring their own food, cutlery, sponges and tea towels. (For some reason our plates are deemed acceptable).

SIL measures out their kids’ food and stands over them hectoring them to make sure they’ve eaten enough of each food group, and keeps checking their water bottles to make sure they’re drinking enough.

SIL has also developed a new thing where she cannot eat in proximity to Christmas trees. She behaved as though we should all have known this, even though she had never told any of us. So she was quite agitated that there was a Christmas tree here at all, but eventually settled for having us shut the door to the living room so she couldn’t see it. She would ask again and again for someone to check the door was shut, as though the tree might be trying to escape and sneak up on her.

It was pretty sad and disturbing all round, and the kids are growing up extremely anxious.

But my brother is a big shot finance bro with several multi million dollar properties and a whole staff of people to run his house and regular holidays to Turks & Caicos, etc - so to his mind this is proof that he and his family are a living formula for success and nothing whatsoever is dysfunctional about the way they do things.

"“Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

LongDarkTeatime · 04/01/2026 16:38

Well in MN bingo I never had ‘arguments about flannels’ as an option 😵‍💫

I came to flannel use later in life as a great way to gently exfoliate (mostly face) when showering. What on earth to people use them on their nether regions for?

RoseAndShone · 04/01/2026 16:56

Did the auntie with the bassoon wrap flannels around it to keep it safe while travelling?

Beachtastic · 04/01/2026 17:08

Flutterbees · 04/01/2026 00:18

Also, I never use a flannel and do not provide them for guests. I travel a lot and can’t remember the last time I saw a flannel in a hotel room. Even if I saw one, I wouldn’t use it and I’d never use it on my face (could have been used to wash someone’s butt!). For those who query face washing in the absence of a face washer…I wash my face morning and night - in the morning I wash in the shower, at night I use a cleanser and wash/rinse my face off over the sink before patting it dry with my towel.
Hope that helps!

"Hope that helps!"

god love you for writing this 🤣🤗

lifeisgoodrightnow · 04/01/2026 17:25

I now see I have to buy BLACK flannels for mascara and coloured flannels for my body ..

sigh

goes back to Dunelm

eggandonion · 04/01/2026 17:44

I stayed in a mid price hotel about 2 years ago. It was used by a lot of American tourists and in the reviews a lot mentioned lack of washrags.
Since then I have noticed flannels and facecloth appearing in hotels.
I have trauma from slimy smelly ones being used to wipe my sticky chin and hands...

HermioneGrangersHair · 04/01/2026 17:56

Elsvieta · 04/01/2026 14:40

I can't get over the one who has nudist guests and apparently doesn't feel entitled to tell them that hers is a clothes-on house ...

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Or tell us what on earth it’s all about ! 😂

AppleDumplingWithCustard · 04/01/2026 18:15

ShawnaMacallister · 04/01/2026 13:21

Have you really just asked other people in real life how they wash their vulvas? Do you ever look at yourself and wonder what happened??

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Considering that some people post actual glorious technicolour photos of theirs on here asking how others wash them is on the mild side.

Chasbots · 04/01/2026 18:27

Bikergran · 04/01/2026 08:13

Why? Was he/she a weird germophobe? I was told by a very senior doctor years ago that the only way you'd catch something off a toilet seat is by licking it.......🤣

Edited
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I think it was two of them, one bloke, one girl but both didn't seem particularly precious. It literally was 18 months into the 2 years we all lived together (6 of us) for them to admit they used a lot of the loo roll.

Dogaredabomb · 04/01/2026 18:35

ShawnaMacallister · 04/01/2026 13:21

Have you really just asked other people in real life how they wash their vulvas? Do you ever look at yourself and wonder what happened??

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I use the car wash at Sainsbury's.

SidekickSylvia · 04/01/2026 18:46

😂😂

Evidemment · 04/01/2026 19:59

Someones admitted their relative thought they'd heard their darling elderly brother drop dead at 2am at Christmas, rushed in, heart in throat, ready to start CPR and instead got an eyeful of eighty five year old Willy Wonka and VULVA

And all you lot want to ask is IF SHE WASHES IT WITH A FLANNEL

I'm opting out of society.

Elsvieta · 04/01/2026 20:00

WhereYouLeftIt · 04/01/2026 16:21

I haven't read the whole thread yet, but I really cannot believe anyone will be able to top this!

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I don't think it's real though! I mean, some people have stables, orchards and even butteries, but governesses have sadly gone the way of the dodo...

JaquelineHide · 04/01/2026 20:26

PLEASE stop derailing this thread to talk about flannels and bum-wiping!

It's really, really, really boring!

ThatsCute · 04/01/2026 20:30

RasaSayangEh · 03/01/2026 17:12

I have no opinions on flannels.

We have a cute matching pair of festive salt and pepper shakers, a gift from some years ago, always have them on the table at Christmas and we're very fond of them.

FiL decided to pick at the hole on the salt shaker with his fingernails and picked off a big piece of the glaze 😭 I don't know why he did it, DH thinks maybe FiL imagined the hole was clogged - but it wasn't, because we always refill them fresh every Christmas!

I'm disproportionately saddened by my poor chipped salt shaker (I need to get a grip, I know!).

My MIL does this—picks stuff and ruins it. The weirdest was a toy IKEA fried egg made out of felt—she picked the yellow yolk off of the white. DCs we’re not impressed. I let it go, but wanted to ask her what the hell she was thinking, and why would you rip a child’s toy apart?

Moltenpink · 04/01/2026 20:35

Really love this thread. Weird relative. Flannel. Strange guest. Flannel flannel. Classics?

bonquiqui · 04/01/2026 21:43

I may be wrong, but I read this post as a bit of an “eats shoots and leaves” punctuation disaster. I think the OP might have meant “I said no. Take the lot, they did”

though who the fuck knows. Maybe my eyes are deceiving me due to lack of black flannels to clean them

ThatBlackCat · 04/01/2026 23:34

Grumpalot · 03/01/2026 18:39

I don’t get this apparently brilliant wiping advice at all. It’s leading me to think I need to ask…how else do people wipe, if not reaching behind with one hand? Confused

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Women wipe in between their legs. Men wipe by reaching around on the outside behind (because their dick and balls are in the way stopping them from reaching/wiping in between the legs).

Raiseaglassforeverynote · 04/01/2026 23:40

@ThatBlackCat Er, have you done a survey or something?😂 I think you’re wrong btw, but my sample size is very limited admittedly.
ETA Or are you joking? Hard to tell at this stage.

ThatBlackCat · 05/01/2026 00:04

Mothership4two · 03/01/2026 19:34

They were my baby clothes that were stolen from my parents - can see how that's not 100% clear from my post. I'm now in my 50s. I only found this out as an adult when the family rift had been long mended so was completely unaware of it or the theft. My DP wouldn't have called the police on a family member though, as tempting as that might be!

Edited
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My apologies. On second reading it's clear now. I saw DP and just thought it was your partner. But the sense of the sentences should have been obvious to me. Sorry.

ThatBlackCat · 05/01/2026 00:04

Raiseaglassforeverynote · 04/01/2026 23:40

@ThatBlackCat Er, have you done a survey or something?😂 I think you’re wrong btw, but my sample size is very limited admittedly.
ETA Or are you joking? Hard to tell at this stage.

Edited

No, I thought it was obvious to everyone?

Howmanycatsistoomany · 05/01/2026 00:07

ThatBlackCat · 04/01/2026 23:34

Women wipe in between their legs. Men wipe by reaching around on the outside behind (because their dick and balls are in the way stopping them from reaching/wiping in between the legs).

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FFS! I've been wiping wrong for 53 years. With my right hand as well.

ThatBlackCat · 05/01/2026 00:07

GreenSmithing · 03/01/2026 18:46

OK, the door handle. It was an honest mistake rather than an accident, and it wasn't at Christmas.

I live in a Victorian terrace which still has all the original interior doors and door furniture. It's also the style of house where one room leads into another.

A relative had an appointment in my city and came to stay while I was away on a work trip. They were on their own in the house. Like another poster's FIL they are quite heavy handed. In particular, and I had noticed this previously, they open doors by grabbing at the handle and kind of yanking. They don’t turn the handle all the way down.

I'm sure you can see where this is going...

It turns out that antique door handles don't deal very well with this type of treatment. Relative found themselves in my living room with the door mechanism completely jammed. At this point, they are in a pickle. They can leave by the front door, but they can't get into any other room in the house...

So they trot around and knock on all my neighbours' doors, until they find someone who they borrow a screwdriver from, then come back and unscrew everything from the door until eventually they get it open.

I came back a couple of days later to find the mechanism in bits on the coffee table, and no explanation of why.

Suffice to say the door has never stuck before or since, and I don't let them stay at mine on their own any more...

I have no strong feelings about flannels.

So he didn't even have the decency to put the door but on for you? He just...left it there, and in pieces? Did he even contribute to paying for the door to be re-hung/fixed?

ThatBlackCat · 05/01/2026 00:10

Blorengia · 03/01/2026 20:25

Yes. This is also the usual custom in the Middle East and Islamic custom.
The right hand is for eating, handling food, and social interactions like shaking hands.

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What if a person is left-handed? Is it wrong to eat with their left hand if they genuinely can't eat with their right hand?

Molto · 05/01/2026 00:19

ThatBlackCat · 04/01/2026 23:34

Women wipe in between their legs. Men wipe by reaching around on the outside behind (because their dick and balls are in the way stopping them from reaching/wiping in between the legs).

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No we fucking don’t. What an invitation to UTIs and other unhygienic complications.

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